Sustainable Exercise - Strength Training for a lifetime
A consistent exercise routine is key to progress and long-term success on your health and fitness journey. We often hear from prospective clients visiting our studios that their biggest fitness challenge is consistency with their exercise routine.
They have shared their experiences with trying to be ‘self motivated’ and get to the gym 3 to 4 days a week. Then something happens and they miss a few workouts. A few workouts turn into a few weeks, and before they know it, they’ve not had a workout in over a month. What’s worse is the more time spent away from a routine, the more challenging it is to get going again.
How, then, are we supposed to stay consistent if self-motivation and willpower are not enough to keep us on track? This is what we’ve learned…
Working with a personal trainer significantly increases the odds you’ll commit to your exercise regime. Having a well trained professional observe and coach your workouts gives you peace of mind that you are being safe and efficient with your exercise. They will also help to ensure you are getting the most out of every rep, exercise and workout you will ever perform.
Making the workout simple, especially at the beginning of a workout program is another important aspect of consistency. The more complex a task and the more time it takes to learn and perform, the less likely we are to pursue that action over a long period of time. Evidence supports the idea that the easier something is to do, the more likely we are to follow through.
What do we mean by simple? First of all, ‘simple’ doesn’t mean ‘easy.’ It starts with understanding what is the ‘minimal effective dose’ for exercise. In other words, what is the least amount of exercise that is necessary to achieve optimal results? This all comes down to the quality of the workout. You don’t have to workout for long or too often to obtain optimal results if your workout addresses all of your body’s major muscles groups, you exercise with great care and attention to form, and the intensity level of the workout is sufficient for your needs.
Scheduling your workout ahead of time. We’ve observed that 2 workouts per week with a personal trainer at roughly 20-30 minutes of hard work per session is ideal for the majority of people to significantly increase strength, endurance, muscle, lean tissue, and overall improvements to physical function and well-being. Scheduling these sessions ahead of time makes it ‘real’ and holds you accountable to someone else aside from yourself. This has a very positive impact on adherence to a program.
What makes this approach so sustainable? In addition to the points made above, we believe a big part of program sustainability is mindset. Adopting the concept of ‘this is what I do’ versus ‘I have to go workout’ helps to solidify the habit of exercise. Making your workouts a part of your lifestyle makes it feel less like a chore and more like something you ‘get to do’ and even look forward to doing. Once your workouts become ‘what you do’ it is far easier to sustain and will become more habitual.
One last, but very important consideration is the safety and long term ‘wear and tear’ from the workout program. Using proper form, moving slowly in a correct fashion under the guidance of an expert trainer is sure to help you avoid injuries through your program, thus allowing you to maintain your strength and fitness over a lifetime.
If you struggle with maintaining a workout routine at a traditional gym, consider working with one of our personal trainers to design a program and schedule that fits into your own lifestyle.
Something we are very proud of here at OneUp Fitness is the number of our current clients who have been training with us consistently for 5 + years. Some have been training since the very first year we opened in 2005!
Thank you for reading. We hope you’ve learned the benefits of hiring a personal trainer. We wish you the best in your exercise and fitness endeavours!
Matt Mombourquette, BSc.Kin
Owner, personal trainer @ OneUp Fitness
June, 2022